09-29-2008, 07:18 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>A bruised, mangled deal </b>
The Pioneer Edit Desk
This is definitely not what the PM promised
It is now immaterial how soon the US Congress gives its approval to the India-US civil nuclear cooperation agreement so that it can be formally signed by the two countries. The 123 Agreement has hit a roadblock in the Senate where a lawmaker has 'anonymously' put a hold on it to prevent any attempt to push it through by unanimous consent without debate and vote. US congressional proceedings allows such interventionism, just as it allows the introduction of new restrictive clauses by way of separate though related legislation. The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has done precisely this by attaching two new clauses, via a separate legislation, to make the discontinuation of American nuclear fuel and reactor supplies, as well as the return of material already supplied to India, legally binding in the event of New Delhi deciding to conduct fresh nuclear tests. The House will adopt a similar law, thus removing any scope of the US Administration taking a political call if India were to test. Those in the Government who have stunningly reduced foreign policy and strategic affairs to a single point agenda of signing the 123 Agreement irrespective of the cost to India have, predictably, waved away the new imposition by taking recourse to past utterances about how India retains the right to test and the US retains the right to respond. This is not bull-headed obduracy but outright foolishness which will convince only the naïve and the ill-informed. The rider mentioned in President George W Bush's letter to the US Congress while seeking its approval for the 123 Agreement will now stand erased from the realm of presidential discretionary powers and shall be written into American law. India will be forced to comply with additional Washington-imposed restrictions simply because the Prime Minister is smitten by Mr Bush and overawed by American power play; his folly shall become the nation's burden.
Meanwhile, <b>Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has added a further twist to the much-touted deal by promising the House of Representatives that the US will persuade the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group at its meeting in November "to prohibit the export of enrichment and reprocessing equipment and technology to states that are not members of the Non-Proliferation Treaty" -- a rather long-winded description that applies to India in this specific context. Once that happens, the fiction that has been peddled by the Prime Minister and his aides all along -- that India can secure from other suppliers what will be denied to it by the US -- shall stand exposed.</b> It will also highlight the fact that after pandering to every American demand and straitjacketing India's strategic nuclear programme, the Prime Minister has managed to secure nothing more than a severely bruised and mangled agreement which will ensure one-way benefits for the US nuclear power industry. The end product bears no resemblance to what the Prime Minister promised the nation or a section of the media publicised so unabashedly. What makes the American deal particularly rotten is the impact it will have on other bilateral agreements which India proposes to sign, for instance with France and Russia, for nuclear fuel and reactor supplies. These agreements cannot be dramatically different from what has been agreed to with the US simply because they will be governed by NSG guidelines which, in turn, are fashioned after American policy. The tragic short-selling of India's interests which began in July 2005 will come to haunt us not long after the <b>Prime Minister and the man whom he so "deeply loves" demit office.</b>Â
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The Pioneer Edit Desk
This is definitely not what the PM promised
It is now immaterial how soon the US Congress gives its approval to the India-US civil nuclear cooperation agreement so that it can be formally signed by the two countries. The 123 Agreement has hit a roadblock in the Senate where a lawmaker has 'anonymously' put a hold on it to prevent any attempt to push it through by unanimous consent without debate and vote. US congressional proceedings allows such interventionism, just as it allows the introduction of new restrictive clauses by way of separate though related legislation. The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has done precisely this by attaching two new clauses, via a separate legislation, to make the discontinuation of American nuclear fuel and reactor supplies, as well as the return of material already supplied to India, legally binding in the event of New Delhi deciding to conduct fresh nuclear tests. The House will adopt a similar law, thus removing any scope of the US Administration taking a political call if India were to test. Those in the Government who have stunningly reduced foreign policy and strategic affairs to a single point agenda of signing the 123 Agreement irrespective of the cost to India have, predictably, waved away the new imposition by taking recourse to past utterances about how India retains the right to test and the US retains the right to respond. This is not bull-headed obduracy but outright foolishness which will convince only the naïve and the ill-informed. The rider mentioned in President George W Bush's letter to the US Congress while seeking its approval for the 123 Agreement will now stand erased from the realm of presidential discretionary powers and shall be written into American law. India will be forced to comply with additional Washington-imposed restrictions simply because the Prime Minister is smitten by Mr Bush and overawed by American power play; his folly shall become the nation's burden.
Meanwhile, <b>Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has added a further twist to the much-touted deal by promising the House of Representatives that the US will persuade the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group at its meeting in November "to prohibit the export of enrichment and reprocessing equipment and technology to states that are not members of the Non-Proliferation Treaty" -- a rather long-winded description that applies to India in this specific context. Once that happens, the fiction that has been peddled by the Prime Minister and his aides all along -- that India can secure from other suppliers what will be denied to it by the US -- shall stand exposed.</b> It will also highlight the fact that after pandering to every American demand and straitjacketing India's strategic nuclear programme, the Prime Minister has managed to secure nothing more than a severely bruised and mangled agreement which will ensure one-way benefits for the US nuclear power industry. The end product bears no resemblance to what the Prime Minister promised the nation or a section of the media publicised so unabashedly. What makes the American deal particularly rotten is the impact it will have on other bilateral agreements which India proposes to sign, for instance with France and Russia, for nuclear fuel and reactor supplies. These agreements cannot be dramatically different from what has been agreed to with the US simply because they will be governed by NSG guidelines which, in turn, are fashioned after American policy. The tragic short-selling of India's interests which began in July 2005 will come to haunt us not long after the <b>Prime Minister and the man whom he so "deeply loves" demit office.</b>Â
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